Despite health officials saying it isn’t necessary for people to wear single-use gloves to protect themselves from contracting COVID-19, one only has to walk through a grocery store parking lot to see that many people are doing so anyways.

At least, that’s how it seems based on the number of littered gloves Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart has seen in parking lots in his community.

Stewart took to social media this week to call out those not properly disposing of their used gloves after coming across a pair left behind in a shopping cart, alongside a grocery list and used napkin.

“If you think something is contaminated, leaving it for others is about the most selfish thing you can possibly do,” he said. “If you think something is contaminated, go ahead, take it off — remove it properly — and put it in the garbage. This is not the way to do things.”

He added that leaving these things in shopping carts only make the jobs of supermarket staff harder while “trying to keep you safe.”

It appears the pandemic-style littering is growing into a widespread problem, with gloves being left across parking lots in Edmonton and Toronto.

Health officials have said that gloves likely won’t do much to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Not only do gloves have to be changed frequently in order to be effective, they can also provide a false sense of security for the person wearing them which could actually lead to more ill-advised touching of their face.

Wearing them also takes needed supply away from health-care workers on the front lines of the health crisis.

Instead, health officials recommend using hand sanitizer, as well as washing hands frequently for at least 20 seconds at a time.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said this week that people can use non-medical masks to prevent spreading COVID-19 through droplets shed into the environment.